Alternative Globalization Addressing Peoples and Earth

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26 poverty, unemployment and impunity for those who had looted their country’s wealth. This massive social explosion resulted in the installation of five presidents in less than two weeks. The billions of dollars Argentina pays every year to service illegitimate debts, and the policies imposed by the IMF lay at the heart of its economic crisis. In
27 the 1990s, Argentina had been the star pupil of the IMF, following its advice to the letter. After a massive programme of privatization and adjustment, by 1999 the country found that its debt had ballooned to $146 billion. When the Argentine crisis deepened, the IMF pledged more and more billions until, in late 2001, the country’s entire economic system collapsed. Before the implementation of neoliberal policies, Argentina was a society of 60% middle class. After the breakdown 60% of the population is under the poverty line. In Africa, the IMF’s star pupil was Zambia. In a region wracked by drought and ravaged by the HIV/AIDS pandemic, Zambia needs all its available financial resources to support its social and agricultural infrastructure. Instead, it is expected to pay an average of US$221 million a year in debt service from 2003 to 2005, which is two-thirds more than it paid prior to receiving debt relief under the HIPC initiative. The IMF alone is scheduled to extract $293 million in debt servicing from 2003 to 2005, after providing debt relief through the HIPC initiative, while Zambians are still paying for misguided policies imposed by the WB and IMF throughout the 1990s. Instead of admitting its responsibility and liability for Zambia’s debt crisis, the IMF remains fixated on forcing the country to sell its remaining assets. When confronted with the failure of their approach in Zambia, international policy-makers hid behind allegations of local government corruption, rather than examine the true impact of their own policies. These experiences signify a systemic crisis of the entire global financial system. No international financial institution, policy regulation or power is able or willing to control the $1.9 trillion worth of currencies that are traded every business day. Financial speculation dominates trade in goods and services, diverting resources from long-term productive investments and areas of greatest human need. Financial markets are also increasingly unstable, with speculative bubbles and financial crises. This risk is unevenly shared. The dominance of the US dollar in international finance provides the credit that allows the US to create new liquidity despite being the largest debtor on the planet and, among other things, invest massively in the arms industry to wage geopolitical wars. The ultimate helplessness of countries that abandon sovereignty over their currencies, peg their currencies to the dollar or adopt the US dollar or Euro is tragically illustrated by Argentina. The price is paid by the poor through loss of jobs and savings, hikes in the price of food, burgeoning poverty and, all too often, death. In “good times”, rich countries create liquidity for themselves through the
Page 1 and 2: Alternative Globalization Addressin
Page 3 and 4: Alternative Globalization Addressin
Page 5 and 6: FOREWORD But let justice roll down
Page 7 and 8: 1. PART 1. THE AGAPE CHALLENGE 1 Go
Page 9 and 10: possibilities for reflection and co
Page 11 and 12: We, churches and believers, are cal
Page 13 and 14: lives. This diversity of blossoming
Page 15 and 16: trition. Environmental problems of
Page 17 and 18: 11 • that deregulated labour mark
Page 19 and 20: Jesus’ words, ‘You cannot serve
Page 21 and 22: the land. Justice calls for deep tr
Page 23 and 24: 3. PART 3. JUST TRADE 17 Woe to you
Page 25 and 26: 3.2 Trade rules by the World Trade
Page 27 and 28: 21 3.3 From food security to food s
Page 29 and 30: Such movements of resistance have s
Page 31: 4. PART 4. JUST FINANCE 25 And forg
Page 35 and 36: In some cases, the ecological debt
Page 37 and 38: year. In addition, a new feature ap
Page 39 and 40: 33 • open up space for communitie
Page 41 and 42: 4.6 Promoting ethical practices and
Page 43 and 44: 5. PART 37 5.TRANSFORMATIVE ACTION
Page 45 and 46: of being blessed with freedom, they
Page 47 and 48: 41 Vanishing Species • 1850-1950
Page 49 and 50: 43 5.3 Economy of solidarity This t
Page 51 and 52: Against this background, and agains
Page 53 and 54: 47 “How do we live our faith in t
Page 55 and 56: 49 critically at globalization, and
Page 57 and 58: This conference was organized by th
Page 59 and 60: 53 globalization, and the commitmen
Page 61 and 62: • Can excessive wealth be defined
Page 63 and 64: livelihoods • Churches, congregat
Page 65 and 66: • advocate for resource and energ
Page 67 and 68: Appendix 61

Alternative Globalization Addressing Peoples and Earth

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